The ability to check facts, verify instructions, confirm orders, reply to technical queries and support and train staff in their handling of calls, both improves efficiency and provides protection against false claims. In some instances the recording of a specific telephone conversation could save a company or an individual a great deal of time and money. Furthermore, systems can be extremely easy to use and simple to support.

Call Centres
In the call centre, your reputation is only as good as the people on the end of the phone, so it pays to monitor and manage the quality of voice transactions. Similarly, if you need to reduce staff attrition rates, it helps to develop agent confidence and potential by providing effective training or by identifying difficulties before they become a major issue. This is why recording is increasingly seen as an essential call centre technology; providing an invaluable quality monitoring, agent evaluation and training tool, as well as a record of conversations for use in the case of customer disputes.

Financial Dealing Rooms
In the world of high finance, time is money. If there is a question about who said what in a deal it needs to be resolved quickly and efficiently. As money sits idle, relationships can sour and opportunities to close more business can be lost. The key to resolving these issues and, indeed, to meeting legislative requirements, is digital voice recording. If a trader is in any doubt about what the other party has said, they can replay their own calls immediately. Similarly, compliance officers are able to instantly retrieve and replay a call at their desk, or anywhere in the world.

The Insurance Industry
In the insurance industry, disputes invariably arise about who said what over the phone. When policyholders say that they were told that "old or small claims don't need to be disclosed" or that "motoring convictions don't count", all insurers can say is that their staff are generally trained not to say such things. There is rarely any contemporaneous written note of the call. With this in mind, the Insurance Ombudsman recently highlighted that apart from its value as a training aid, call recording ought to be seen as a natural requirement for doing business over the phone. Furthermore the industry regulator will require all insurers to have some evidence of what was said in phone calls in the case of a 'who said what' dispute.

Command and Control
In the world of command and control, clear concise communication saves valuable minutes. Any delay in determining exactly what was said can mean the difference between life and death. The emergency services need proven voice recording systems that help to send the right assistance to the right location. Following the emergency, voice recording plays a key role in preparing for the inquiry or inquest. With scenario replay, investigators can listen to conversations in the order they were received, even if they are on different channels. They can then reconstruct the whole sequence of events quickly and accurately.

Local Government
Voice recording can help government organisations to improve customer service, increase productivity and cut costs. The introduction of voice recording is also now becoming a key technology for government organisations, delivering a range of applications from the verifying of transactions to quality monitoring.

Recording calls gives the small to medium enterprise the same benefits and advantages that hitherto have been enjoyed only by those with heavy IT budgets. Continuous calls, one after another, often prevent accurate notes and the updating of records. Recording calls allows you to focus on what is being said, not on the notes being written. Recording playback helps to settle disputes, allows other staff to hear the call for training, clarifies garbled messages, traps nuisance or abusive callers and reduces exposure to liability. Recording calls provides a valuable back-up when things don't go exactly according to plan.

Training and Compliance
Proprietors of small businesses often have to travel to train staff 'on the job', but they cannot be in two places at once. Even if it were possible to watch a member of staff for the entire day, it would not only be a tremendous waste of time, resources and money, but would also not give a true reflection of staff performance. The ability to record all calls, or even just a cross-section, gives owners and managers the opportunity to evaluate, correct, encourage and support staff. As a training tool it can be invaluable.

Conclusion
In conclusion, call recording is becoming increasingly important in daily business. Increased liability and cases of fraud and threat make call recording an essential business tool. Recorded telephone calls are being used more and more to clarify what was agreed upon, or as evidence of misconduct. Agreements reached on the phone form an important part of business in the financial world, but are also increasingly common in trade, industry and the public sector. Using a recorded conversation as evidence of an order or agreement is common practice in these sectors.

Source: Appleacre Communications Ltd, 2005
http://www.rocketuk.com/applications/whyvoicerecording.htm